Mr. Rusty visits Daiwa Ryoga

A friend's been complaining about his Daiwa Ryoga's making rough grinding noise while cranking. The usual suspect's not hard to pin down as it is usually one of the outer most bearings where water can easily sneak in, was likely a visit from Mr. Rusty. This reel's seen some serious action and most recently, it's been used for salt water fishing too.

A popular model, somehow a people's choice for salt water fishing too.

This reel isn't really water proof but most materials used are corrosion resistant. There are no seals or gaskets around the box to prevent water intrusion and the design seems to allow water to pass through without getting trapped. However, the drag stack is supposed to be water-proof with o-ring seals around it.

Water everywhere in the gearbox. Possibly from rinsing after fishing. That means water can easily sneak all the way in to the gear box since there are no rubber seals or gaskets. Top stack of the drag is o-ring sealed both around outer ring and on the crank shaft.

If water gets trapped in the gearbox, it's definitely a bad sign and there seems to have some gunk oozing out from the anti-reverse bearing.

MR. Rusty found. There was quite a bit of gunk oozing out of the anti-reverse bearing and upon sliding the sleeve out, blotches of rust was everywhere on the sleeve, bearing pins and housing.

Luckily, rusty grime somehow hasn't dug deep into metal surfaces as it is probably an early detection. Rust removal was straight forward and surface cleaning afterwards made for a spanking clean bearing pins and roller sleeve. The outer most crank shaft support bearing looks like a corrosion resistant bearing that 'should' shield water away from the anti-reverse bearing but the inside's exposed.

A dab of one-way bearing oil, roll and work it into the roller pins for good measure. Just make sure that the excess oil's cleaned up using absorbent kitchen towel without it dripping or flowing everywhere into the reel. Marine grease all over the outer most bearing that doesn't seem to have any exposure to water and rolls smooth as new.

When the stacked gear with drag discs was removed, it looked like a mud fight took place. A combination of grease, carbon dust and water inside the drag system. Weird thing is that this drag stack is suppose to be water proof with o-ring seals around the top stack disc and also on the crank shaft.

Mud like gunk all over the entire drag stack system. Degreased and cleaned then marine grease brushed all over for protection and water displacement.

Most of the grease that came with the reel when new were no where to be seen. Too dry for my liking and definitely needs to be brushed cleaned before applying a new layer of marine grease.

Too dry and needs thorough cleaning to remove old grease/gunk before applying a new layer of marine grease.

Here's a mid way reassembly and grease application on most surfaces not just to protect but also to displace any water in the event of water intrusion. Make sure to work the mechanical parts in order for the grease to work into all contact areas.

Upon general cleaning of all mechanical parts, new marine grease is being applied all throughout. Green arrow shows where o-ring's suppose to prevent water intrusion, removed and cleaned in case there are debris stuck preventing the o-ring from doing its intended job.

Top most layer of the drag stack with o-rings around the outside somehow wasn't stopping water intrusion. O-rings removed and cleaned, marine grease thorouhgly brushed all over the gaps between the disc and gear as well as the crank shaft.

What was not shown here are the spool support bearings that seems to be smooth as silk and spins freely as they are quite shielded from water exposure. Even though plenty of people claim to use this reel for salt water application, I wouldn't bet my money on using it right out off the box. I'd definitely give it a full strip down with sufficient marine grease coat on it before doing so to ensure prolonged lifespan and longer lasting fishing adventures.

Slow pitch & long fall jigging at Pulau Jarak.

To usher in 2014, we kicked it off to a jiggy good start at Pulau Jarak. A 3 days 2 nights easy going trip with a bunch of like minded enthusiastic anglers. It's been a while since the last time I set foot on the all too familiar GT Chaser with its leathery clean and hardy deck. We kept reminding ourselves that every trip to Pulau Jarak will never be the same and all we can do is to be prepared for almost anything and everything.

This time around, we managed to have some good fun with a variety of feeding frenzies and the occasional awkward deafening silence of no hook ups for hours.

We did however manage to document some interesting catches. Here's what we call slow pitch and also long fall jigging. A technique used in combination of the target species, jigs used, and most importantly to pace ourselves between the intense high pitch jigging.

On the first day jigging at depths of around 60-80meters, to our surprise the only fish that was fond of our sexy jigs were the GTs even around the seabed. GTs after GTs. The fun wore out rather quickly as it wasn't fun trying to haul GTs up from great depths. No other species were around or taking out jigs, we'll just have to put on a brave face, keep calm and keep cranking.

Majorcraft Giant Killing's jig rod fully loaded. This rod is a force to be reckoned with.

Xesta jig deemed too sexy for this GT, worked at moderate speed.

Another on falls for the Xesta, also worked at moderate speeds taken on the fall about 5 meters off the seabed.

Double hook up on Shout jigs. Stay and Width jigs. Worked slow taken on the fall.

The Gees kept hitting, this one went for the new Xesta Agraam, worked fast and was stopped like hitting a freight train.

Up close of the Xesta Agraam speed jig.

On day 2, we went popping around Pulau Jarak shallows and yielded just 1 take. Weird GTs here taking jigs and not poppers or stick baits. For hours we went around and about, no more hook ups. We then headed a little bit further out to deeper waters in search of demersals. Again, nothing was taking our jigs.

Without further delays, we headed to deeper jigging grounds. First stop, a notorious spot called 'Hutan Melintang' as we couldn't believe that not a single fish was interested in our jigs. An infamous spot known for its wide variety of predators namely razor sharp toothed gangsters like sharks, barracudas & spanish macks that just can't help confiscating our jigs and hooks.

As usual, another surprise for a few of us, a mate got the first take and felt like it was a snag. He kept cranking and didn't budge. Another mate got another take, this time it took some drag and immediately after, I was on too! The first fish finally realised it's been hooked up and started to dart about taking drag. And all of a sudden, all 3 of us couldn't feel anything anymore and started retrieving our lines. It felt like it was all tangled up and an occasional tug here and there. We then noticed that there was a school of cobia gangsters, jigs in mouth, swimming up towards us and the boat. The school took notice and immediately scrambled, made a sharp turn parallel to the boat tangling up a few more lines as they go. 2 of us lost our fish and only the first one survived and managed to land the whopper of a cobia of about 30kgs!

On the next drop with a new jig tied on, a quick take and feisty fight ensues.

This small cobia took fancy to my Xesta Agraam jig and was no match for the Majorcraft Giant Killing rod.

After the cobia frenzy drought hit us hard for the next few hours hauling only one grouper and another tiny spanish mack. Before the sun sets, we headed off to anchor at Pulau Sembilan (P9) slowly winding down the day before night falls. A nicely semi sheltered spot famous for its big schools of giant hard tail scads. We quickly switched to our favourite ultra light jigging gear Evergreen Temujin Spider matched with a Shimano Stella 1000FE. We managed to fill up all of our ice boxes and witness the occasional spectacular queen fish aerial fights.

Full loaded Temujin Spider. This is no giant hard tail scad fight.

Feisty little queen fish put up a massive fight taking my IMA Gun 12g for a good run.

And another bigger queenie guaranteeing a good run on the ultra light tackle.

All in all, another signature appeal of Pulau Jarak's unpredictability and yet hauling quite a bit of fish (mostly hard tail scads). We'll be back to keep Pulau Jarak's reputation in check till the next time.

Photos courtesy of Tackle Source.

Conquest of Gold Member

How do you pimp a reel that's already as groovy looking as a Gold Member? Inject some contrast and remove some gold to give prominence to it's flashy golden bits!

Gold Member in question here is the Shimano Calcutta Conquest. A new reel out of the box and yet old news as they've recently just announced an updated Calcutta Conquest for 2014 which will be available by the end of the first quarter.

Again, the pimped bits were all year end sales opportunities just like the Daiwa Tatula pimp up process. Bits of carbon fiber complimented by black and gold trim, black anodized parts and most importantly, hybrid ceramic bearings for some extra spinning momentum and distance.

Vanity shot of all the pimpy bits ready to be loaded into this Gold Member. A nice mash-up different brands and parts.

I'm starting to appreciate more and more of Shimano's reel designs that allows you to easily swap out parts as replacement or upgrades. To swap out the free spool support bearings, all you need is a just a tweezer. You don't even need to whip out any screw driver. Kudos to Shimano!

Bearings replaced without lifting a screw driver. Most tweezers would be able to pick out the pentagon shaped spring wire retainer. Top: bearing tucks inside SVS brake access spool cage. Bottom: unscrewing the mechanical brake knob reveals the other spool support bearing.

As usual, I would give any new reel a nice coating of marine grease all over internally to give it that extra layer of protection to dispel water. I find it rather critical for my application of not just fresh water but also salt water exposure to my reels. This Shimano Calcutta Conquest comes with pretty beefy multi-disc drag system and yet very smooth. It's a tad dry on stock and additional drag grease can be added for the extra smoothness. The drag system design looks like it can easily take larger dimension discs without any problems and I suspect the Ocea Jigger discs are also compatible. Time will tell and I will give it a try when it's time to swap them out to smooth drags.

Gold member's gearbox exposed, nicely lathered with salt water grease for protection. Wet drag washers a tad too dry for my liking. A few trips in and I'll swap them out with smooth drags in custom sizes for stronger stopping power.

The handle swap is more of a cosmetic job and a little bit of a weight reduction using carbon fiber handle. I opted for the swept handle with black anodized star drag and foam knobs with gold accents to match the grooviness of the gold theme.

Black and Gold. Knobs and handle's a custom chop job from 2 different brands. Not in favour of the red bits but not a deal breaker too until I find something suitable. This is a 98mm length handle and recently there's a longer version of 108mm which will work better with stronger cranking power.

Tramp stamp on the outside of what to expect inside.

A nicely designed & built reel, once again yet to wet the lines with mouth watering looks. All I need now is a decent trip to put this Gold Member to the test to see if the bling pimpness would be able to help lure in some victims.

Tatula to the chop shop!

Year end festivities usually means sales and stock clearance, a global phenomenon and especially ubiquitous in the online shopping world. What we have here is a hot new product and some hotter new pimp-up parts to go with it. This hotly anticipated Daiwa Tatula's a combination of everything that works from Daiwa's arsenal of tech innovation and most noticeably the refinement of its previously less than perfect t-wing into the latest TWS incarnation that 'seems' to work, conceptually. The Tatula needs no further introduction as it has been very much dissected and every bit explored by most authoritative anglers out there.

We're here to talk about this virgin bait caster heading straight to the chop-shop with a set of hot purple aluminium pimpin parts as well as a limited edition Studio Composite carbon swept handle + silver carbon fiber handles. Hotter still, they were all on some kind of offer.

Here's one for the 'fresh out of the box' look.

Juicy purple pimpin bits bulging with anticipation to get bolted on.

Upon removal of the entire gearbox side, out comes the main gear and drag stack. Again, a well known Daiwa trickery in designing a smooth drag system, a combination of just one carbon fiber drag washer (not shown) and a second 'red' coloured wet drag washer which looks suspiciously a lot like engine manifold gasket sheets.

Level wind pawl housing cap removed, purple pimpin cap in. Note the red drag washer above.

Mechanical brake cap in boring black, swapped out with purple bits. Remember to swap out the friction sheet.

There's something quite curious about the drag stack. Typically, a drag disc is just a thin sheet of metal about 1mm thick sandwiching washers in between. The first/only disc on the Tatula is over 3mm thick and rather heavy. I might be wrong but, the only explanation I can fathom out from this is that Daiwa uses existing parts from their large inventory bins and as a value reel, there isn't a need for multi-layered drag discs and washers like higher end models. Hence the one and only fat drag disc in place of possibly 2-3 discs thickness.

 

A quick peek into the gearbox and lather it with saltwater grease goodness for some protection and longevity. No surprises here with some plastic bits for free spool release and the TWS flipping trigger witchery.

Purple purple everywhere! When dealing with aluminium hex screws, best to use high quality drivers as the slightest slippage would damage the screws and you'll spend donkey years trying to remove it.

All pimped-up and hasn't even seen the light of day. Soon!

Then comes the delayed RPCustom hybrid ceramic bearings, arrived slightly later and yet in time for it to be loaded into the reel before the reel gets wet.

The swap was easy on the magforce side (right) but complicated on the gearbox side, the gearbox aluminum casing needs to be removed to access the spool bearing on the mechanical brake side. Unlike Shimano's convenient design where you can access the bearings by removing the mechanical brake knob and a retainer wire.

Overall, promising looking reel, time will tell if this would be the go to reel as a daily beater hauling up big fish after big fish.

Pre-loved Stella, suicidal Stella

Before my trip to Maldives, I managed to acquire myself a pre-loved Shimano Stella 10000SW specifically for GT popping. According to the owner, he's used the reel only on one occasion for GT popping, christened in Maldives too.

The condition of this reel is like new except for some minor dings and scratches here and there. Not a deal breaker or concerns that will affect the quest to tame some angry GTs.

As usual, no reel will escape my attempt to strip it down for a thorough check, grease up and pimp it to be battle ready for 7 days of Maldivian Madness.

Looks perfectly clean and virgin like. Spins like one too, creamy and smooth.

First discovery, line rollers, some wear and tear but nothing major. Just need a quick bearing smoothness check, clean up and greased up.

Line rollers, the first place to check if the reel's been well maintained or bashed. Looks like it's been fishing straight out of the box with very little grease and some bashing wear and tear on the aluminum shaft (red pointer) that holds the entire line roller assembly in place.

Once cleaned off gunk and old grease, in goes loads of salt water grease packing it to all available crevices taking up any space available to not have much chance for salt water intrusion. Note that there are no water proofing seals on this 08 Stella.

Moving my way down the reel, the bail arm mechanism cover. Nothing major but gunk collected over screws and ports that might corrode parts over time if left unattended.

Most screws on both sides have collected some unwanted gunk. Just a quick spray of contact cleaner, brushed off the gunk and grease it up for some protection.

Next up, moving in towards the rotor retainer nut and bearings. Nothing much to see here, just some filth and cleaning up would do.

Rotor retainer nut needs some cleaning, bearing rotates like a virgin, smooth and creamy.

The gearbox shows signs that grease has been injected through the service port and hoping for it to be spread all over the entire gearbox. Doesn't work for me, unfortunately. There are no quick and dirty way to do this but to be thorough by stripping it down and examine parts for wear and tear.

No deal breaker, no surprises, and no major wear and tear bits. Gear tooth are all in excellent condition. All internal bearings are working as intended. Floating and sliding shafts are all in excellent condition. Just some grease shoved about where it's of no use. A thorough brushing of grease over every bit would do.

The last part, drag system. Again, they look like they were fishing the minute it's out of the box with very little drag grease visible. Just plenty of carbon gunk all over the system. Not a bad sign, just a sign that it's been properly tested with angry GTs.

Carbon + drag grease gunk everywhere. They come off rathers easily like strands of elastic jello.

Plenty of gunk everywhere. Once it's cleaned, the system needs to be greased thoroughly before piecing it back together.

Top stack and drag clicker housing also needs to be thoroughly greased to displace any possible salt water intrusion.

Greased all over, even the insides of the drag clicker housing needs some grease.

The reel was nicely matched with an FCL Labo ultimate boat casting heavy rod. We were tossing 120-160g poppers and stick baits all throughout 7 days till I can't feel my arms anymore. On top of that, I've also had several near misses with the bail arm closing in on me midway through a cast. By the 3rd day, the bail arm closed on me again and both my arms decided to behave like strangers and voluntarily let go of the rod.

My pre-loved Stella's became a suicidal Stella, rod and reel fell into the ocean and I can see it slowly sinking with my heart free-falling. I see my angling adventures flashing before my eyes as I wave goodbye to my biggest tackle investment... *glass shatters* Fortunately, we have super deckie who was lightning quick in tossing his cup of coffee, jumped in and save my rod and reel. Mighty mighty deck hands saved the day and a fat tip was parked aside for his heroic effort.

Upon recovering the rod and reel, I immediately took the reel off the rod and dunk it into a pail of fresh water in an attempt to flush out as much salt water as possible. After a couple of hours of soaking, the reel was back in action without fuss.

Once back home, I immediately strip the reel apart to check for any signs of rust. Luckily, no rust was found but water was everywhere, assuming fresh water in place of salt water after the bath.

Water was everywhere. Some gunk collected on the drag system as usual. Even the anti-reverse bearings' filled with water.

Not entirely a water proof/resistant reel even with it's rubber seals all over the place. I'm glad I rubbed it down thoroughly with salt water grease to displace as much water as it possibly can, or at least creating a sacrificial protective layer.

Gearbox: check, main gear:check, one-way bearing:check, worm gear: check. Water everywhere but no Mr. Rusty in sight, phew! Sacrificial grease protective layer works.

I can't risk having any rust forming anywhere and I've decided to strip the entire reel apart for a total ultrasonic cleaning bath.

What you see here are most mechanical parts that needs proper ultrasonic cleaning bath. They were left out to dry and a thorough brush down of saltwater grease before piecing them back together.

The culprit for the bail arm closure while casting could be caused by the auto-close wedge. I believe this is the reason why my pre-loved Stella became a suicidal Stella, something trippy and faulty in the system. Just casually leave the culprit out of the equation when piecing it back together and you won't have any attachment issues with any of them.

Nice to have on certain reels but can be a nuisance to some. For me, this is the culprit that made my pre-loved Stella a suicidal Stella.

All in all, an awesome reel that can take some serious GT bashing. When pieced together with nicely rubbed down lubrication, the reel was back to its normal virgin state, smooth and creamy. Once a suicidal Stella now fully rehabilitated without the trippy parts to being a healthy Stella once again.